The profile of a rail head is made up of approximately circular curved sections with different radii, wherein each curved section forms a lane on the running surface of the rail track. The milling head or each cutting tooth comprises as many cutting plates as curved sections or lanes of the respective rail head to be milled.
Milling refers to chip-removing machining of materials, such as metal, using a milling cutter. The cutting movement necessary for chipping is produced by rotation of the cutting tool relative to the workpiece that is held stationary.
A movable fixture for milling rail heads is described in the publication DE 10 2006 008 093 A1. In this fixture, the rail heads of the rail tracks arranged in a track bed are machined using a rotationally driven milling head. The milling head is in a chassis that is mounted on a fixture that is movable on the rail tracks and comprises a plurality of cutting plates. Each of the cutting plates is detachably mounted on the milling head.